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Dream City (夢場 Yumeba) is the primary setting of Rhythmic Pretty Cure. In its present form, it is in the shape of a pentagon with five distinct regions. It is an artificial island consisting of natural features on a concrete base.

History

Post-war founding

At the start of the Occupation, General Douglas MacArthur commissioned the construction of an artificial island off the coast of Ine, in Kyoto Prefecture. A German POW who had been an innovative construction worker back at home during the war was put in charge of the project; the workers he oversaw started work on the island in October 1945, constructing a tall ring of reinforced steel using technologies he had developed but never really put to use up to this point. However, he was able to construct a tall, thick island made of concrete, pumping water out of the frame's interior and pouring the concrete in. This first part of the island was completed in ten months. Other people on the project soon applied this revolutionary new technology to artificial islands in the same vicinity and were put in charge by MacArthur of the construction of those islands. These initial islands, finished by December 1946, were Kakushin, the location of one of the first bases for the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (for the first several years of its existence, it hosted a SCAP base); West Village, the original island; East Village, six miles to the east; Kuwabatake, an upscale neighborhood a bit further to the north; Civic Center, a place connecting the western and eastern islands which served as the administrative part of MacArthur's Island, as it was first known; and a pair of smaller island communities, Little Pentagon (just off of West Village and the original pentagon-shaped part of the area) and Little Italy (a neighborhood just off of East Village which was the first residential community in the area for Westerners).

Before construction on these islands was finished, it was realized that the island furthest off the coast needed easy access, so MacArthur commissioned numerous islands between Kakushin and Kuwabatake. The first island in what would constitute the complete Upper East Corner of the area, Truman Hill (in honor of then-U.S. President Harry S Truman), was completed in May 1947, just in time for its namesake's 63rd birthday. The Lower West and Lower East Corners also got a bit bigger and eventually became a single island which was just over half the combined sizes of both corners. By the time construction of the complete island was temporarily disrupted by the Korean War, the Upper West Corner was nearly halfway completed. In the meantime, new communities formed, including Kitashowa, which was north of the just-completed area now known as Showa Park; Financial District, the area's financial sector; Silicon Town, the area's technology sector; New London, a British settlement in the Lower West Corner; Chinatown, a neighborhood in the Upper East established by Chinese refugees who had gone farther east than Taiwan in fleeing Chairman Mao's Communist regime; Dreamville, an upscale neighborhood for which the city was soon named following MacArthur's disgraceful exit from the position of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces; and Television Heights, where the only Japanese member stations of any major American networks are located.

Construction of the island continued even after the Occupation was over, and within nine years of the project's beginning, the area had taken the familiar five-sided shape. The German POW who was one of the overseers was released shortly before the Occupation ended and continued his work afterwards, eventually retiring to a home prepared for him and his family abroad in Little Italy following the completion of the project. Following his death in 1973, he was interred in a mausoleum on the edge of Little Italy.

After the island's completion, new neighborhoods sprung up, including MacArthur Hill, East Kakushin, Midori Village, Mizuno Heights, New Rio, Stimson Heights (after the man who had spared Kyoto from destruction as World War II drew to a close), Soho, Noho, Dutchtown, Dream Valley, and Nolita. In 1987, the Dream City Core was built in the center of town, and the commerce and events there helped keep the city afloat even during the Lost Decade.

Today, Dream City continues to attract tourists the world over, and it remains second only to Kyoto among the prefecture's cities in many fields.

Known Locations

Altair Private Academy - Close to the border between the Upper West Corner and the Lower West Corner, but situated in Sunrise Heights, in the Upper West Corner, and almost as old as that part of the city.

Kudo Karate School - The dojo where Hitomi and Tsumugi go to karate class. Located in West Village.